Madge Morton, Captain of the Merry Maid eBook

and had learned that no one meant to harm or ill treat
her. Once Mrs. Curtis caught a brief glimpse
of Mollie, standing framed in the cabin doorway.
The girl had given a frightened stare at her, and
then had fled inside her room. She could not
be coaxed out again. Mrs. Curtis was curious.
The one quick look at Mollie seemed oddly to recall
some friend of her youth. It was nothing to think
of seriously. She would know better when she
saw the girl another time.

Daily Mrs. Curtis seemed to grow more and more fond
of Madge. If Madge failed to come to see her
every day or so, she would send Tom over as a messenger
to bring her little friend back with him to luncheon
or to dinner. She and the little captain used
to have long, confidential talks together, and Mrs.
Curtis seemed never to weary of the young girl’s
romantic fancies. She used to make Madge tell
her of her family and what she knew of her dead father
and mother. At times Madge wondered idly why
Mrs. Curtis was interested in them, and every now and
then she thought Tom’s mother wished to ask her
an important question. But Mrs. Curtis always
put off the inquiry until another time.

Toward the close of their stay on the “Merry
Maid” the girls were invited to a six o’clock
dinner at the Belleview, given in their honor by Mrs.
Curtis and Tom. On the day of the dinner Tom
was sent to the “Merry Maid” to ask Madge
to come to his mother an hour earlier than the others
were expected. Miss Jenny Ann had elected to
stay at home with Mollie. Nothing would induce
Mollie to attend the party, and Miss Jenny Ann would
not allow any one of the girls to remain on the houseboat
with her.

Tom and Madge went up to the hotel on the street car,
since it was impossible for Tom to row with his lame
arm. They found Mrs. Curtis on a little balcony
that opened off her private sitting-room. The
piazza overlooked the waters of the small bay.
It was a wonderful summer afternoon; white clouds
were rioting everywhere in the clear, blue sky; the
water was astir with white-masted boats, dipping their
sails toward the waves like the flapping wings of
sea gulls.

Madge was looking her prettiest. She had on
her best white frock, and as a mark of her appreciation
of Mrs. Curtis wore the string of pearls about her
throat. Without making any noise, she crept out
on the balcony and kissed Mrs. Curtis lightly on the
forehead. Then she dropped into a low, cushioned
chair near her friend’s side.

“Here I am, dressed for the dinner,” she
announced happily. “How do you like me?
Tom said you wanted me to come before the other girls,
and that this was perhaps our farewell dinner with
you, for you might be going away in a few days.
Dear me, I am sorry. Are you going to Old Point
Comfort for the rest of the summer, or to your own
summer place?”

Mrs. Curtis shook her head. “I don’t
know, Madge, just where I shall go,” she answered,
pushing Madge’s curls to one side of her white
forehead. It was the way that Mrs. Curtis liked
best to have Madge wear her hair. “But,
wherever we go, can’t you go with us?”
she concluded.